New Orleans, LAWith almost 6,000 Xarelto lawsuits consolidated for pretrial proceedings, and more being regularly filed, plaintiffs await the day that bellwether trials will be heard. Those bellwether cases will set the tone for future Xarelto litigation, and will show both sides what the experts have to say about Xarelto side effects.
According to the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, as of June 15, 2016, there were 5,853 lawsuits consolidated for pretrial proceedings in MDL 2592. Those lawsuits allege patients suffered uncontrolled bleeding events leading to serious injury as a result of using Xarelto. Inclusion in the MDL is not a comment on the lawsuits’ merits; rather it is an acknowledgement that the suits share similar questions of fact.
Those questions of fact involve uncontrolled bleeding linked to the use of Xarelto. Because Xarelto is a blood thinner, uncontrolled bleeding is a risk for patients. But patients allege they were not adequately warned about that risk, nor were they warned that there was no antidote to Xarelto. Patients taking warfarin (an older anticoagulant medication) have an antidote in the form of vitamin K. But patients who take Xarelto and suffer uncontrolled bleeding have to wait for the blood thinner to leave their system.
That puts patients at risk of serious side effects including possible death, depending on the nature of the bleeding. And patients reportedly don’t have to use the drug for long to suffer a side effect. The Louisiana Record (6/17/16) reports on David and Rebecca Rowell, who filed a lawsuit against the makers of Xarelto alleging negligent misrepresentation because the companies failed to properly design, research, manufacture and test Xarelto.
The Rowells claim David only used Xarelto for 10 days, from June 19-June 29, 2015, but suffered from life-threatening bleeding as a result of the anticoagulant. Xarelto is given to prevent a risk of blood clots, but the risk of uncontrolled bleeding is also serious, as highlighted by a lawsuit filed by Ruth McGowan.
McGowan filed her lawsuit in July 2014, after her father, Thomas Dunkley, died from uncontrolled bleeding linked to the use of Xarelto. As with David Rowell, Thomas Dunkley reportedly only used Xarelto for around 10 days. On July 26, 2012, Dunkley suffered a parenchymal hemorrhage. He died on August 1, 2012.
The Rowell lawsuit is case number 2:16-cv-07281. The McGowan lawsuit is case number 2:14-cv-159.
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